Dutchess County Regional Science Fair Competitive Awards 

April 5, 2025

5TH GRADE COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE
Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Rachel Perfecto Science Award ($100)

Kieran Rode

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Bacteria olympics

2ND PLACE
Mei Ling Chan Memorial Award ($50)

Nipun Tunga

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Particle Extermination

3RD PLACE

• TEG ($25)

Connor Tokarz

Fishkill Plains Elementary School

Temperature effect on baseball travel

HONORABLE MENTION

Kai Raszkiewicz

Oak Grove Elementary School

Amazing Crystals

HONORABLE MENTION

Marco Romani

Noxon Road Elementary School

Apparent Motion

HONORABLE MENTION

Kavya Holmes

Titusville Intermediate School

GA + AL

HONORABLE MENTION

Anderson Musante

West Road

Five Second Rule

HONORABLE MENTION

Inanna Cappello

Dutchess Day School

Cake Me Up Before You Go-Go: The Effects of Different Leavening Agents on Cake Rise and Taste

HONORABLE MENTION

Tatiana Conrad

Vail Farm Elementary School

How Does Chemical Erosion Effect Different Rocks?

HONORABLE MENTION

Olivia Ferrara

Titusville Intermediate School

Electrical Conductivity Through Various Media

HONORABLE MENTION

Arwen Tveekrem Dague

Titusville Intermediate School

Which species of birds come to which types of seeds?

HONORABLE MENTION

Isabella Gonzalez

Fishkill Elementary School

Smoker’s Lungs VS Healthy Lungs

HONORABLE MENTION

Kaija Moore

Pawling Middle School

Plastic Cause

HONORABLE MENTION

Jared Wisniewski

Alden Place -Millbrook

Hang Time

HONORABLE MENTION

Nathaniel Nicoll

West Road

Lava Lamps and Liquid Densities

HONORABLE MENTION

Gyan Holmes

Titusville Intermediate School

Homemade Electric Motor

HONORABLE MENTION

Chloe Cerchia

Netherwood Elementary School         

Soda and Mentos challenge

HONORABLE MENTION

Arabella DiNucci

Pawling Middle School 

The expansion of marshmallows

HONORABLE MENTION

Quinnley Douglass

Holy Trinity Alexzander

Oil Spill Clean up: What works best?

6TH GRADE COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE

• Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Laya Varanasi Science Award ($150)

• Thermo Fisher JIC

Lily Okin

Gayhead Elementary School

Organic Pesticides Saving the Day

2ND PLACE
John Cwiklik Memorial Award ($50)

• Thermo Fisher JIC

Christopher Zupan

Gayhead Elementary School

Fix Those Prosthetics

3RD PLACE
TEG ($25)

Margie Gunnels

Dutchess Day School

Be Wise, Sanitize?

HONORABLE MENTION

Emme Hingle-Nelson

Dutchess Day School

How do different liquids affect plant growth?

HONORABLE MENTION

Kavin Dabhi

Myers Corners Elementary School

Exploring Paper Helicopter Flight Patterns

HONORABLE MENTION

Zachariah Shrestha

Oak Grove Elementary School

The immunity power of spices

HONORABLE MENTION

Katherine Drury

Dutchess Day School

Shell Shock!

HONORABLE MENTION

Brendan Walsh

Pawling Middle School                          

Floating in Fahrenheit

HONORABLE MENTION

Camryn Kellam

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Savor the Flavor

HONORABLE MENTION

Maxwell Delgado

Bulkeley Middle School  

Can a spider plant with no or artificial light thrive as well as one with sunlight?

HONORABLE MENTION

Nehlah Mohammed

Brinckerhoff Elementary School

Microwaves: An Essential Farming Tool

HONORABLE MENTION

Julian Bergdall

Pawling Middle School

Which cereal expands the most in milk?

HONORABLE MENTION

Martin Xu

Brinckerhoff Elementary School

Investigation On Hydroelectric Output

HONORABLE MENTION

Ritika Mathur

Gayhead Elementary School

The Trash Bot

HONORABLE MENTION

Nadly Elhalafawy

Millbrook Middle School

The Effects of Skin Care - The Sephora / Ulta Trend

HONORABLE MENTION

Tia Almakhamreh

Holy Trinity

How I can try to cure cancer

HONORABLE MENTION

Roman Byrd

Union Vale Middle School

Contact Lens Solution: Does it make a difference?

7TH GRADE COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE
Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Sue Serino Science Award ($100)

• Thermo Fisher JIC   

Alexzander Holowiak

Van Wyck Junior High School

Aerodynamics of Car Spoilers

2ND PLACE
Emily O’Neill Science Award ($50)

• Thermo Fisher JIC

• TEG ($25)

Elissa Huynh

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks on You?

3RD PLACE
TEG ($25)

Ria Vekaria

Wappingers Junior High School

Hydroelectric renewable energy

HONORABLE MENTION

Evangela Li

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Finger- rant

HONORABLE MENTION

Malamine Mane

Holy Trinity

The Unseen Bacteria

HONORABLE MENTION

Fiona Crow

Webutuck Middle School

The "PlaceBlue" Effect

HONORABLE MENTION

Rouvana Aboueid

Webutuck Middle School

Slime

8TH GRADE COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE
Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Brian T. Martin Memorial Award ($100)

• Thermo Fisher

Maxwell Fidler

Pawling Middle School 

Terrifying Tornadoes

2ND PLACE
Lowell Butler Award ($50)

• TEG ($25)

Wesley Wolff

Holy Trinity

Gearing Up: The Differential

3RD PLACE
TEG ($25)

Lion Ogino

Van Wyck Junior High School

FLAME GUARD PAPER

HONORABLE MENTION

Kenya Jaigua Latacela

Holy Trinity

Effects of Climate Change

HONORABLE MENTION

Alice King

Holy Trinity

Hudson Valley Underwater

HONORABLE MENTION

Duo Dalthorp

Pawling Middle School                          

Man Vs. Machine

HONORABLE MENTION

Skylar Guglielmo

Holy Trinity

Kelper 22b

HONORABLE MENTION

Olivia Hamel

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Bruno Mars, Beethoven, Bon Jovi: What's on Your Plant's Playlist?

HONORABLE MENTION

Gwen Herlihy

Holy Trinity

Ocean Acidification

HONORABLE MENTION

Nidhi Pandya

Van Wyck Junior High School

Can Biodegradable hydrogels conserve water for farming?

HONORABLE MENTION

Grace Cozzocrea

Pawling Middle School   

Printing Life: Layer by Layer

HONORABLE MENTION

Aileen MacKenzie

Holy Trinity

Fruit Ripening

HONORABLE MENTION

Margaret Gregory

Holy Trinity

The Fibonacci Sequence and The Golden Ratio

9TH GRADE COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE
Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Allan Page Science Award ($100)

Grace Shrestha

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Gut Health is wealth

HONORABLE MENTION

Veda Kodakandla

John Jay High School

Robot roadmaps: navigating with intellect

HONORABLE MENTION

Sean Lai

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Chaotic Dancing Pendulums

SENIOR DIVISION COMPETITIVE AWARDS

1ST PLACE
Sigma XI ($100)

• Vassar Brothers Institute ($50)

• Dr. James Green Science Award ($100)

• DCC President Dr. Peter Grant Jordan Science Award ($100)

• Robert Verkuil Science Award ($100)

• NY State Senator Robert Rolison Science Award ($100)

• Clemson University

Prof. June J. Pilcher

Science Award ($100)

• ISEF Trip to International Fair

Shiven Dabhi

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Implementation of mechanical neural networks for force distribution in morphing wing structures

2ND PLACE
Sigma XI ($75)

• Edmund Lynch III Science Award ($100)

• Michael Ellsworth, PE Memorial Science Award ($100)

• Brian & Benjamin Lei Science Award ($100)

• Rebecca and David Idell Science Award ($100)

• ISEF Trip to International Fair

Emma Mazzotta

John Jay High School

Remediating Eutrophication through Chemical Coagulation

3RD PLACE
Sigma XI ($50)

• Nancy O’Shea Memorial Award ($100)

• Rita Brannen Memorial Science Award ($50)

Emily Zhang

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide as a Promoter of Thrombin Activity and Fibrinogen Clot Formation

HONORABLE MENTION

Danik Godard

Pawling High School

EEG-Based Texture Classification During Passive Touch: Investigating the Role of Vision in Somatosensory Processing

HONORABLE MENTION

Kevin Greco

Pawling High School

Novel Connection Between Endocannabinoids and Perisynaptic Schwann Cells during Reinnervation of the Neuromuscular Junction

HONORABLE MENTION

Mischa Parsons

Spackenkill High School

Probing Calcium Laser Excitation for Buffer Gas Chemistry

HONORABLE MENTION

Trisha Painuli

Spackenkill High School

The Effect of Methylphenidate on Mood in Healthy Young Adults

HONORABLE MENTION

Isabelle Echegaray

Roy C. Ketcham High School

ph Influence on DSSC Performance

HONORABLE MENTION

Jacqueline Gill

Spackenkill High School

The Effect of Sleep on Emotional Regulation in Adolescents

HONORABLE MENTION

Amber Carpenter

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Radioactivity: Detecting Radon's Invisible Threat

HONORABLE MENTION

Katie Park

Spackenkill High School

The Impact of Stress and Amyloidosis on Microglial Phenotypes

HONORABLE MENTION

Abhay Gupta

John Jay High School

EnDive: A Cross-Dialect Benchmark for Fairness and Performance in Large Language Models

HONORABLE MENTION

Yusuf Ahmed

Spackenkill High School

Analyzing Moth Biodiversity and Abundance at Vlei Preserve: A Comparative Study of Wetland Ecosystems in New York

HONORABLE MENTION

Elizabeth Keel

Pawling High School

Haloacetic Acid Prevalence in Community Water Systems and Correlations to Esophageal Cancer

HONORABLE MENTION

Angela Liu

Spackenkill High School

The Nuclear (Teen) Age: Attitudes of American Teenagers Towards the Use of Nuclear Weapons

HONORABLE MENTION

Charlotte Genesi

Pawling High School

A Survey Assessment of the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Among Different Ethnicities

HONORABLE MENTION

Sarah Willie

Pawling High School

Using the HRRR Model’s Reflectivity Parameter to Recreate a Forecast of the May 6, 2024 High Risk Severe Storm Outbreak and Analyze it’s Accuracy in Storm Placement and Intensity

HONORABLE MENTION

Lucas Walsh

Pawling High School

Marathon Machines: Exploring the Application of Machine Learning in Marathon Running

HONORABLE MENTION

Autumn Tompkins

Pawling High School

Comparison of Center of Mass in Two-Strike and Non-Two-Strike Counts

HONORABLE MENTION

Ava Davis

John Jay High School

Psychological Effects of Childhood Conditions

HONORABLE MENTION

Naman Kukreti

Spackenkill High School

ChatGPT as a personal Cybersecurity assistant

Dutchess County Regional Science Fair

Special Awards

April 5, 2025

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of UNIVERSITY WOMEN

Rouvana Aboueid

Webutuck Middle School

Slime

Grace Cozzocrea

Pawling Middle School

Printing Life: Layer by Layer

Elissa Huynh

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks on You?

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY - MID-HUDSON

Emma Mazzotta

John Jay High School

Remediating Eutrophication through Chemical Coagulation

Kai Raszkiewicz

Oak Grove Elementary School

Amazing Crystals

Lion Ogino

Van Wyck Junior High School

FLAME GUARD PAPER

AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Angela Liu

Spackenkill High School

The Nuclear (Teen) Age: Attitudes of American Teenagers Towards the Use of Nuclear Weapons

ASSOCIATION for WOMEN GEOSCIENTISTS

Tatiana Conrad

Vail Farm Elementary School

How Does Chemical Erosion Effect Different Rocks?

BOBBI ALCOCK FOUNDERS AWARD IN CHEMISTRY- BEST CHEMISTRY PROJECT

Emma Mazzotta

John Jay High School

Remediating Eutrophication through Chemical Coagulation

CARY INSTITUTE of ECOSYSTEM STUDIES

Maxwell Delgado

Bulkeley Middle School

Can a spider plant with no or artificial light thrive as well as one with sunlight?

Emme Hingle-Nelson

Dutchess Day School

How do different liquids affect plant growth?

Emma Mazzotta

John Jay High School

Remediating Eutrophication through Chemical Coagulation

Yusuf Ahmed

Spackenkill High School

Analyzing Moth Biodiversity and Abundance at Vlei Preserve: A Comparative Study of Wetland Ecosystems in New York

Kieran Rode

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Bacteria Olympics

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND AWARD

Lily Okin

Gayhead Elementary School

Organic Pesticides Saving the Day

Emma Mazzotta

John Jay High School

Remediating Eutrophication through Chemical Coagulation

Kaija Moore

Pawling Middle School

Plastic Cause

Amber Carpenter

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Radioactivity: Detecting Radon's Invisible Threat

Nidhi Pandya

Van Wyck Junior High School

Can Biodegradable hydrogels conserve water for farming?

Ria Vekaria

Wappingers Junior High School

Hydroelectric renewable energy

FRICIS AND EMMA ERNSTSONS “Make A Difference” AWARD

Abhay Gupta

John Jay High School

EnDive: A Cross-Dialect Benchmark for Fairness and Performance in Large Language Models

HOPEWELL DEPOT PROJECT

Veda Kodakandla

John Jay High School

Robot roadmaps: navigating with intellect

INSTITUTE of ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC ENGINEERS

Abhay Gupta

John Jay High School

EnDive: A Cross-Dialect Benchmark for Fairness and Performance in Large Language Models

Lucas Walsh

Pawling High School

Marathon Machines: Exploring the Application of Machine Learning in Marathon Running

Naman Kukreti

Spackenkill High School

ChatGPT as a personal Cybersecurity assistant

LORETTA ANNE HTOO MEMORIAL SCIENCE AWARD

Arwen Tveekrem Dague

Titusville Intermediate School

Which species of birds come to which types of seeds?

MID-HUDSON ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION

Skylar Guglielmo

Holy Trinity

Kelper 22b

MID-HUDSON PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB

Alexzander Holowiak

Van Wyck Junior High School

Aerodynamics of Car Spoilers

MID-HUDSON VALLEY BLACK NETWORK

Nehlah Mohammed

Brinckerhoff Elementary School

Microwaves: An Essential Farming Tool

Maxwell Delgado

Bulkeley Middle School

Can a spider plant with no or artificial light thrive as well as one with sunlight?

Christopher Zupan

Gayhead Elementary School

Fix Those Prosthetics

Malamine Mane

Holy Trinity

The  Unseen Bacteria

Veda Kodakandla

John Jay High School

Robot roadmaps: navigating with intellect

Duo Dalthorp

Pawling Middle School

Man Vs. Machine

Angela Liu

Spackenkill High School

The Nuclear (Teen) Age: Attitudes of American Teenagers Towards the Use of Nuclear Weapons

Jacqueline Gill

Spackenkill High School

The Effect of Sleep on Emotional Regulation in Adolescents

Trisha Painuli

Spackenkill High School

The Effect of Methylphenidate on Mood in Healthy Young Adults

Katie Park

Spackenkill High School

The Impact of Stress and Amyloidosis on Microglial Phenotypes

Camryn Kellam

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Savor the Flavor

Nipun Tunga

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Particle Extermination

Roman Byrd

Union Vale Middle School

Contact Lens Solution: Does it make a difference?

MID-HUDSON VALLEY GEM and MINERAL SOCIETY

Alice King

Holy Trinity

Hudson Valley Underwater

Kai Raszkiewicz

Oak Grove Elementary School

Amazing Crystals

Amber Carpenter

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Radioactivity: Detecting Radon's Invisible Threat

Nidhi Pandya

Van Wyck Junior High School

Can Biodegradable hydrogels conserve water for farming?

NANCY PFIRMAN MEMORIAL SCIENCE AWARD

Arwen Tveekrem Dague

Titusville Intermediate School

Which species of birds come to which types of seeds?

NASA EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE AWARD

Shiven Dabhi

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Implementation of mechanical neural networks for force distribution in morphing wing structures

NATIONAL OCEANIC and ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

Sarah Willie

Pawling High School

Using the HRRR Model’s Reflectivity Parameter to Recreate a Forecast of the May 6, 2024 High Risk Severe Storm Outbreak and Analyze its Accuracy in Storm Placement and Intensity

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS

Kavin Dabhi

Myers Corners Elementary School

Exploring Paper Helicopter Flight Patterns

Grace Cozzocrea

Pawling Middle School

Printing Life: Layer by Layer

Connor Tokarz

Fishkill Plains Elementary School

Temperature effect on baseball travel

Malamine Mane

Holy Trinity

The  Unseen Bacteria

Maxwell Delgado

Bulkeley Middle School

Can a spider plant with no or artificial light thrive as well as one with sunlight?

POUGHKEEPSIE-ARLINGTON ROTARY CLUB

Kieran Rode

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Bacteria olympics

RHONDA HTOO MEMORIAL AWARD

Charlotte Genesi

Pawling High School

A Survey Assessment of the Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Among Different Ethnicities

SOCIETY OF HISPANIC PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS

Christopher Zupan

Gayhead Elementary School

Fix Those Prosthetics

SOCIETY of WOMEN ENGINEERS

Margie Gunnels

Dutchess Day School

Be Wise, Sanitize?

Emme Hingle-Nelson

Dutchess Day School

How do different liquids affect plant growth?

Inanna Cappello

Dutchess Day School

Cake Me Up Before You Go-Go: The Effects of Different Leavening Agents on Cake Rise and Taste

Alice King

Holy Trinity

Hudson Valley Underwater

Veda Kodakandla

John Jay High School

Robot roadmaps: navigating with intellect

Emily Zhang

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide as a Promoter of Thrombin Activity and Fibrinogen Clot Formation

Isabelle Echegaray

Roy C. Ketcham High School

ph Influence on DSSC Performance

Mischa Parsons

Spackenkill High School

Probing Calcium Laser Excitation for Buffer Gas Chemistry

Elissa Huynh

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks on You?

Olivia Hamel

St. Mary’s Fishkill

Bruno Mars, Beethoven, Bon Jovi: What's on Your Plant's Playlist?

Arwen Tveekrem Dague

Titusville Intermediate School

Which species of birds come to which types of seeds?

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE

Wesley Wolff

Holy Trinity

Gearing Up: The Differential

Kavin Dabhi

Myers Corners Elementary School

Exploring Paper Helicopter Flight Patterns

Sarah Willie

Pawling High School

Using the HRRR Model’s Reflectivity Parameter to Recreate a Forecast of the May 6, 2024 High Risk Severe Storm Outbreak and Analyze its Accuracy in Storm Placement and Intensity

Shiven Dabhi

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Implementation of mechanical neural networks for force distribution in morphing wing structures

UNITED STATES METRIC ASSOCIATION

Christopher Zupan

Gayhead Elementary School

Fix Those Prosthetics

WESLEY PFIRMAN MEMORIAL AWARD

Christopher Zupan

Gayhead Elementary School

Fix Those Prosthetics

WILLIAM LANG MEMORIAL AWARD

Emily Zhang

Roy C. Ketcham High School

Partially Reduced Graphene Oxide as a Promoter of Thrombin Activity and Fibrinogen Clot Formation